


Splashdown

by MistbornJedi



Series: Gesrar and Millia [1]
Category: Star Wars
Genre: Future of Star Wars, Gen, Jedi Ronin, Legends continuity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-18
Updated: 2021-03-18
Packaged: 2021-03-27 05:28:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,899
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30117852
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MistbornJedi/pseuds/MistbornJedi
Summary: Five hundred years after the death of Darth Krayt and the fall of the One Sith, the Jedi and the Sith have both risen again and are at war once more. Mirialan Jedi Padawan Millia Alvaiyeris and her mistress have managed to recover information from a top-secret Sith outpost, something that could change the entire course of the war. In an effort to remain incognito, they have taken a passenger vessel back to Coruscant, but the Sith are hot on their tails...
Series: Gesrar and Millia [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2216331





	Splashdown

Millia felt her heart freeze in her chest as the Sith ship dropped out of hyperspace.

The pilots yelled in alarm. Several of the other passengers screamed. The ship shook as lasers filled the sky around them. Something exploded, throwing her onto her face. Her mistress helped her up and strapped her into a seat. The view through the front window spun dizzily as they spiralled out of control. Wind shrieked past her, blowing out of a hole in the hull.

They were caught in a gravity well. The planet pulled them in relentlessly. The only good point was that they were already out of the Sith ship’s weapons range. One of the pilots had managed to wrestle some semblance of control. The other one was slumped in his seat. She couldn’t see if he was alive or dead. Weight pressed against her chest as they entered the atmosphere, decelerating fast. Orange flames surrounded the ship.

“Everybody hold on to something!” the pilot bellowed. “We’re going –”

They crashed.

The window shattered. A column of water poured into the ship. She struggled to undo her seatbelt. They were sinking, fast. She couldn’t breathe. Her lungs were burning as she tried to hold her breath. One of her legs felt numb. She… she couldn’t…

Darkness claimed her as the ship sank into the depths of the ocean.

She woke up. That was a surprise in and of itself. She could feel sunlight on her face. Her ribs hurt, and she could feel bandages wound tightly around her chest. She could smell the ocean. Her clothes were different. She couldn’t feel one of her legs.

She jerked fully awake. She was lying in a hammock, on a boat. Her left leg ended in a stump just above where her knee used to be. She stared at it in shock for a moment before she began screaming.

“Hey!” Somebody came dashing over. “Hey, hey hey hey. Calm down. Calm down.”

“My leg!” she wept. “What happened?"

“Your spaceship crashed.” She could see that he was tall, with sandy hair and a thin scar that cut across his face from right to left. “You’re lucky I was in the area. I managed to pull you out.”

“My… my mistress?”

He frowned. “Mirialan woman, like you? Tall, short hair, got a diamond lattice tattoo on each cheek?”

“Yes, that’s her! Did you find her? Is she alive?”

“She’s alive, but…” he grimaced. “She’s in a coma. I don’t know what’s wrong with her.”

She lay back in the hammock, crying softly. “Who else survived?”

He shook his head sadly. “There were no other survivors.” He paused for a moment. “What happened? Was there a malfunction with your ship or something?”

“Go away.”

“What?”

“Go away. Go away! Leave me alone!” She couldn’t cope. “Leave me alone! Let me brood in peace.”

He nodded in understanding and left. She hung there, crying quietly to herself. Ever since she’d become a Jedi, she couldn’t remember failing so completely. It took her a long time to pull herself together enough that she could consider doing anything other than lie there feeling sorry for herself.

She managed to swing herself out of the hammock and grab hold of one of the masts it was tied to. Somebody had thoughtfully left a pair of crutches propped up against it. She managed to hobble her way to the back of the ship. The man who’d talked to her earlier was sat at a workbench, soldering something.

“I need you to answer some questions,” she said. He looked up at her and nodded, and gestured to a chair. She slumped down gratefully. “Where are my clothes?”

“They’re on the clothesline,” he replied. “Drying off after your dip in the ocean.”

“And my personal effects?”

He pulled a small tin from under the bench and handed it to her. “I did my best to dry them out,” he said. “Oh, and I had to swap out the emitter matrix on your lightsaber, it got damaged in the crash.”

She froze and glared at him. “You touched my lightsaber?”

“You know, a polite person might say ‘Thank you for making sure I didn’t blow my arm off when I turned it on’,” he said sharply. She opened her mouth, but he cut across her. “Let me guess. You’re on a top-secret mission of vital importance, and it’s imperative that I drop everything that I’m doing and help you get back to Coruscant with all haste. If I do, I’ll be rewarded, otherwise, I’ll pull the wrath of the Jedi Council down on my head.” He snorted. “We’re already heading at maximum speed towards the spaceport. I want you gone, three people on a one-person boat makes things a bit cramped.” He took a deep breath. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have snapped at you. Let’s start over.” He offered her his hand. “I’m Gesrar Redorn, of Onderon, captain of this boat. You are?”

“Millia,” she stuttered, taken aback a little. “Millia Alvaiyeris, Jedi Padawan.” She shook his hand. “Thank you, for saving my life.” She looked around. “Where are we? What planet is this?”

“This is Castilon,” he replied, turning back to his soldering. “It’s an ocean planet. I could give you an exact location, but it wouldn’t mean anything more to you than ‘ten days away from the spaceport’.”

“Ten days?” she balked. “Ten days? Can’t you go any faster?”

“We’re already going as fast as we can. You’re going to have to deal with it.”

She growled angrily, tried to stand up, and fell flat on her face with a crash. Cheeks burning with embarrassment, she shrugged off Gesrar’s attempt to help her up and managed to haul herself upright. It wasn’t really possible to storm off on crutches, especially on a moving boat, but she made a good try of it.

Ten days. _Ten days_. Plus the time it would take to get back to Coruscant once she found a ship. She hoped that they could hold out that long. She opened the tin and pulled out a small chip, examining it. It didn’t appear to be damaged. If she could get it back, if they could survive the attack for long enough, it could change the entire course of the war.

She put it away and pulled out her lightsaber. As much as she hated to admit it, Gesrar had done her a massive favour. If she’d tried to turn it on with a damaged emitter matrix, the explosion would probably have killed her. She turned it over in her hands. She couldn’t even see where he’d worked on it. Bracing herself, she angled it away from her body and turned it on.

A beam of sapphire-blue light extended from the emitter. It was a much deeper shade than most, closer to navy or black than blue. She swung it from side to side experimentally. It seemed lighter, more responsive than before. She stared at the blade for a while before deactivating it and putting it away. At least something was going her way.

A soft breeze began to play with her hair as the sun set, painting the sky in a thousand shades of yellow and orange. The few clouds glowed with light. Two enormous moons hung low over the horizon. And the stars… Millia had spent most of her life on Coruscant, with the city lights washing things out, but here, thousands of miles from the nearest light, there were so many stars out that the sky was more white than black. The galaxy arched overhead, so bright that it was actually casting a shadow at her feet. She gaped in wonder, clutching tightly to the mast, afraid that if she let go she’d fall upwards and be lost forever in the infinite sky.

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”

She stumbled a little as she turned around. Gesrar stood there, staring up at the stars.

“There’s so many,” she breathed. “Which one is Coruscant?”

He pointed towards a large glowing patch in the middle of the clouds that made up the galaxy. “It’s behind there,” he said. “Coruscant’s on the other side of the galactic centre from here.” He held out a plate with some food on it. “I brought you something to eat.”

“Thank you.” She began wolfing it down. With everything else that had happened, she hadn’t realised how hungry she was.

“Never seen the stars like this before, huh?”

She shook her head. “Never. I’d heard stories, but I never thought…” She finished eating and handed him the plate back.

“Try and get some sleep,” he said. “You need rest.”

The next few days seemed to blur past. Millia spent most of her time resting in her hammock, or trying to get used to walking with crutches. Several times a day, she went below deck to see to her mistress. She wasn’t getting any better, but she wasn’t getting any worse either. She took that as a good sign. Gesrar continued working on his project. Come to think of it, she’d never actually seen him sailing the boat. There was probably an autopilot.

On the fourth day, she woke up as the sun was rising. Something was wrong. She couldn’t put her finger on it. Something…

The sun. Every day, the sun had risen from behind them. Now it was on her right. They’d changed course.

“What’s going on?” she demanded. “I thought we were heading straight to the spaceport.”

“Slight change of plan,” he said. “Somebody needs our help.”

“Who? Where?”

He shrugged. “No idea.”

She stared at him incredulously. “What?”

“You’re a Jedi, right? D’you ever get a feeling that you need to be somewhere, even if you don’t know why?”

“Well… yes, but I’m a Jedi! I’m meant to be able to do stuff like that! You’ve just diverted us on a hunch that you need to be somewhere.”

“That we need to be somewhere,” he corrected. “Look, it’s not just a hunch. I’ve been able to do this since I was a kid. It’s always panned out.”

She twigged. “You’re Force-sensitive.”

He paused before nodding slowly.

She pinched the bridge of her nose. “How far off-course are we going?”

“A day, tops. Look, I know it’s inconvenient, but I have to do this.”

“Inconvenient?” She sniffed. “Inconvenient. Yeah, that’s one way you could put it. You could also say that thousands of people dying over Coruscant because I can’t get this information to them is also inconvenient. You could say that the fact that this little detour of yours has essentially murdered hundreds of people is inconvenient –”

Gesrar slapped her.

“Get over yourself,” he snapped, as she clutched her cheek. “Coruscant’s not even under attack at the moment. Besides, if your information is so vitally important, why didn’t you just transmit it directly? If you think _I’m_ responsible for _your_ soldiers’ deaths, then by the same reasoning you’re just as guilty as I am.”

“What are you talking about?” she mumbled. “The Sith were attacking Coruscant. I saw it when I left.”

“They were attacking Coruscant,” he said. “I was coming to tell you before you came stomping around with your demands. I heard it on the radio. Your side won, two days ago. The battle’s over.”

Her jaw dropped. “It’s… it’s over?”

“Of course. What were you expecting, that it’d go on for weeks? Most battles are over in a matter of hours.”

She slumped back against the mast. “I still need to get back.”

“I know. I promise, I’ll still try and get you back as fast as I can. But this needs to be done first.”

It was near sunset when she sighted land on the horizon, a small cluster of islands. She could make out people on the beach waving to them as they approached. Gesrar helped her down onto the sand. One of the men approached and embraced him.

“Gesrar,” he said. “Long time.”

He grinned. “Lux, this is Millia, a member of the Jedi Order. Millia, this is Lux, he’s the mayor on this island.”

Lux turned to her and bowed deeply. “Charmed to meet you, m’lady.” She inclined her head, flustered. He turned back to Gesrar. “How come you’re here? Just dropping by to catch up with old friends?”

He shook his head. “No, I had –”

A scream interrupted the conversation. Gesrar and Lux took off immediately. Millia hobbled along behind them as fast as she could. They quickly reached the source of the screaming. A man lay on the ground, unconscious. His leg was broken. Millia could see the bone sticking through his skin. Blood poured from the wound. A woman kneeled beside him, screaming for help.

Gesrar swore as he saw what was happening. Millia had to force herself not to be sick. She’d never seen anything so bad before.

“Please tell me you can do Force healing,” Gesrar muttered.

“A… a little bit, but I’ve never tried it on anything like this,” she replied.

“Well, now’s your chance. He’s going to bleed out if you can’t fix it.” Gesrar knelt down beside the injured man and grimaced. “I really hope he can’t feel anything right now.”

He placed his hands on either side of the wound and snapped the bone back into position.

Millia fell down beside him. Blood spurted over her hands. She ignored it and tried to concentrate. She could do this. Like she’d practiced. One bit at a time. The big blood vessels were the worst, so she fixed those first. She moved the shards of bone that had broken away back into place and sealed them together. Torn muscle and broken veins reconnected. He didn’t have enough blood, so she made some more. New skin grew over the surface.

She leaned back, exhausted. She wasn’t sure how long it had taken her, but the sun had gone down and the stars were out. She’d done it. There wasn’t even a scar.

“Well done,” Gesrar said quietly.

She smiled tiredly as he helped her up. People crowded around them, chattering, but she was too tired to understand the words. They managed to make to back to the boat and she slumped in her hammock.

She sank into sleep as the stars drifted overhead.

_She still had both her legs in the dream. She wandered amongst the stars, for a moment, for an eternity, she couldn’t have said. The song called to her. People, minds, dreams, worlds swept past her. One stood out from the morass. They swirled around and about one another, lovers, wives, hated enemies. The tides of the Force split them apart and sent them down different paths, but they were still linked. She could feel the storm brewing between them, and one day it would break free and the galaxy would be shattered before it. The song called to her again, pulling her away, two notes, similar but distinct. An orb of brilliant blue swelled out of the darkness, encompassing everything. The universe changed around her, rescaling itself until she was a single person once more. She alighted gently on the deck of the boat. She could see herself, lying in her hammock, snoring. The song came from below deck. She followed it down into the hold. Things loomed out of the darkness around her, food, supplies, bits and pieces. A box, hidden beneath a chest of drawers. It glowed to her eyes, pulsing to the rhythm of the song. The lock opened at her touch. She started to lift the lid…_

_“Looking for something?” Gesrar asked._

She jerked awake with a scream, catapulted out of her hammock and landed with her lightsaber in one hand. Blue light lit up the night. Gesrar loomed out of the shadows.

“Just what do you think you’re doing?” he thundered. “What gives you the right to go through my stuff? You think that because you’re a Jedi that gives you the right to invade people’s privacy?”

“I didn’t mean to!” she insisted. “I didn’t mean to! I couldn’t help it, it was calling to me! It wanted me to find it.” She lowered her lightsaber. “You don’t believe me, do you?”

He raised an eyebrow. “Actually, I’m wondering how you’re managing to keep a lightsaber stance when you’ve only got one leg.”

She looked down, realising he was correct. Purely by instinct, she’d taken a lightsaber stance as if she’d had both legs. As soon as she realised, she toppled over with a yelp. Gesrar caught her before she hit something.

“I do believe you,” he said, helping her back into her hammock. “It does this from time to time, with people it likes.”

“What does? What is it?”

“Stay here.” He walked off, then came back a couple of minutes later clutching something in his hands. “This is what was calling to you.”

Millia gasped. It was a lightsaber, although it was like no lightsaber she’d ever seen before. It was a good six inches longer than hers, with an emitter placed at each end. Sections of it gleamed gold and silver. A cord was tied around the handle in a complex spiral knot.

“It’s beautiful,” she breathed. “Can I…” He nodded, and she picked it up carefully. She could feel the crystals inside it. They buzzed warmly as she tightened her grip around it. “Wow. I’ve heard stories, but I never thought…”

He took it back. “They’re rare, but they do exist. Not many go for a saberstaff nowadays.”

“You’re a Jedi, aren’t you?”

He shook his head. “Once upon a time. I quit.”

“What happened?”

He grinned in the darkness. “My master and I had a disagreement. I broke his nose, marched into the Council chamber and told them exactly what I thought of them, and said they could stick their Knighthood up where the sun doesn’t shine.” He laughed shortly. “They did their best to hush it up. Can’t have people disagreeing with the Jedi, now, can we, that might lead to things like free speech and self-determination.”

She didn’t argue. She couldn’t think of what to say. There wasn’t much _to_ say, really.

They sat there in silence and watched the sky lighten as the sun rose.

“I made a cybernetic leg,” Gesrar said eventually.

Millia stared at him. “You’re kidding.” He shook his head. “You’re not kidding are you? You actually built one.” She laughed faintly. “Why would you do that?”

He shrugged. “Why not? You needed one, I could build one, so why wouldn’t I?”

“Alright. Let’s see it, then, see if it actually works.”

He brought it over. She’d been expecting something crude and cobbled together, but it was nothing like that. There were people on Coruscant who’d pay millions of credits to have a cybernetic leg like that one.

“This is probably going to hurt a little,” he said.

She gasped as sensation rushed back into her leg. It moved smoothly as she flexed it slowly, wriggled her toes. She wobbled as she stood up and moved a few steps.

“It’s perfect!” she exclaimed, grabbing him and hugging him tightly. “Thank you. Thank you! How can I repay you for this?”

He waved a hand. “If you have to pay me, it’s not a gift.” He broke off, frowning at something on the horizon. Millia turned. Behind them, a wall of black clouds spread across the horizon.

“Get below deck,” he said coldly. “Now. Don’t argue,” he added, seeing her about to open her mouth, “just do it.”

“What is it?” She felt cold, much colder than she should have.

“It’s a Force storm.” He’d gone pale at the sight of it. “The Sith are looking for you.”

She hurried below deck. She’d never heard of a Force storm before, but just the look on Gesrar’s face when he’d spoken of it was enough to terrify her. She closed the hatch behind her. This was going to be bad.

The ship shook as the storm slammed into it, tossing her to the floor. She could hear the wind outside shrieking, loud enough to drown out any other sound. The ship lurched violently, and she was thrown against the ceiling, then slammed hard into the floor. The hatch was ripped off its hinges. Wind and rain howled into the hold, soaking her through to the skin. It seemed like the storm was after her personally. Darkness reigned outside, punctuated by the odd burst of crimson lightning.

She jumped as she felt a hand on her shoulder.

“Mistress!” she exclaimed. “You’re awake!”

“What’s happening?” her mistress croaked. “Where are we?”

“We crashed, you’ve been in a coma, we’re on a boat, and we’re in the middle of a Force storm,” Millia summarised. “The battle at Coruscant’s over, our side won.” A blast of wind slammed them against the wall.

“Help me up.”

“We’re supposed to stay down here.” Her mistress glared at her. “I’ll help you up.”

The wind was far worse above. Waves the size of building crashed down around them. Bolts of lightning crackled across the sky, looking less like giant sparks of electricity and more like tears in the fabric of reality, illuminating everything in a ghoulish red glow. Gesrar stood at the helm. Immobile and silhouetted against the storm, he looked like a demigod, a hero out of one of the old stories come alive to save them. A lightning bolt tore from the clouds, aimed directly at him. He didn’t even look up. The bolt bent sideways, inches above his head, and earthed itself in the ocean.

“What are you doing up here?” he bellowed, spotting her. “Get down! It’s you they’re after!”

No sooner had the words left his mouth than another lightning bolt came for her. He barely managed to deflect it in time. She smelled her hair burning before the rain put it out.

“We can’t stay below!” she yelled. “How can we help?”

“Get up here!” They scrambled up to the helm. “I need your help to create a barrier. One of you is going to need to maintain it, I need to focus on where we’re going.”

“How can you tell anything in this storm?”

“I can tell.”

“I’ll hold it.” Millia’s mistress stepped forwards. “I’ve done this before.”

Gesrar nodded. “I remember.”

She yelled as she grabbed their hands and thrust them upwards. A wall of force exploded outwards from them. Rain and wind still made it through, but they weren’t about to capsize like they had been five minutes ago.

As much as it tried, the storm failed to destroy them. The lightning started to let up after several hours of sailing through the darkness. The clouds started to break apart. Millia blinked. It was mid-afternoon. She’d forgotten it was still daytime. She’d never been so tired before. She felt like she could go to bed and sleep for a week.

“We made it,” Gesrar sighed, slumping to the floor.

“You!” Millia’s mistress yelled. “I thought it was you!”

He grinned, exhausted. “Good to see you again, Rana.” He forced himself to his feet. “You two stay here. Don’t touch anything. I need to see how far off course we’ve been blown.”

“Do you know who he is?” Rana demanded, after he’d walked off. “He’s dangerous! The Jedi have a bounty out on his head!”

“He told me who he is,” Millia replied, lying back and closing her eyes. She could feel the sunlight on her face. “He’s Gesrar Redorn. He’s a former Jedi.”

“Millia, he was expelled from the Order for treason. He refused to obey an order, and he struck his master and went AWOL. There’s been a bounty on him for the last five years. Last I checked, it was twenty million credits.”

“He seems nice.”

“Yes, he always was very good at seeming. He –” She cut off as he returned. “Just… don’t be foolish, alright?” She turned towards Gesrar. “Where are we?”

“Ask me nicely.”

Millia could hear her teeth grinding. “Please, Captain, could you tell us where we are?”

“Sure. The spaceport’s that way.” He pointed. “We should get there by tomorrow morning. As horrible as it was, that storm cut a big chunk off our journey time.”

She nodded curtly. “Thank you.” He bowed mockingly and walked off. She growled in frustration and glanced down. Her eyes went wide.

“What happened to your leg?”

“I lost it in the crash. He made me a new one.”

“You’re getting a proper one made as soon as we get back to Coruscant.”

“But –”

“As soon as we get back!” Rana demanded. “You don’t know anything about what he’s put in that thing! Honestly, I wouldn’t put it past him to have cut your leg off in the first place, just so that he’d have an excuse.”

“You go too far,” Millia said coldly. She drew her lightsaber.

“I go too far? I go too far? I’m not the one pulling a lightsaber on her own mistress.” Rana drew her own lightsaber. It blazed with blue light. “Come on, then. Let’s see what I managed to teach you.”

“What’s got you so worked up?” Millia asked, as she tried a couple of test blows. Rana knocked them aside with ease. “You’re not usually like this.”

“It’s him!” Rana spat, slashing at her. Millia parried and jabbed, causing Rana to jump backwards. “He’s a traitor, and he’s just walking around free, like there’s nothing we can do about it!”

“What did he do? What did he do to make you hate him so much?” She checked two of Rana’s attacks and shoved her backwards with a Force push.

“He betrayed the Order. He betrayed his master!” Rana slammed her back against the mast. Her ribs burned. They hadn’t fully healed from where they’d been broken in the crash, she was still wearing the bandages.

“How?” she demanded. “How did he betray them? What did he do?”

Rana’s eyes narrowed. “You don’t need to know that,” she sneered. “Just do as I say. Now, if that’s the best you’ve got to offer –”

Millia charged at her. This was supposed to have been a simple mission, and everything had gone wrong. She was sick to the back teeth with it all, and now her mistress was treating her like crap for something that wasn’t her fault. She couldn’t take it. She charged, screaming. Rana’s eyes went wide and she tried to block her attack, but Millia slammed past it, punched Rana in the gut and kicked one of her legs out from under her, sending her sprawling.

“Good enough for you?”

A slow clapping brought her back to her senses. Gesrar was leaning against the mast, watching them. He even had a bucket of popcorn next to him.

“Once you two are done trying to kill one another,” he said, “I’d like to get some sleep. Could you keep the noise down?”

Rana glared at him and stalked off. Millia waited until she’d gone from view before deactivating her lightsaber.

“I thought Jedi were supposed to be calm and collected,” Gesrar said.

“She doesn’t like you,” Millia replied. “What did you do to annoy her so much?”

“I’ve lost count, to be honest.” He crunched down a handful of popcorn. “Let’s talk about what you just did. Does your mistress know you’re studying Form VII?”

She struggled to keep a straight face. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

He snorted. “Please. My master taught me all seven forms. He thought that I should know how to recognise and defend against them even if I wasn’t going to use them. I know a Juyo move when I see one.”

“Please don’t tell her,” she begged. “I know I’m not supposed to be doing it, it just…”

“Comes naturally?” Gesrar finished. She nodded, ashamed. “Heh. Look, it’s nothing to be ashamed of. Lots of Jedi learn Juyo. When you get back to the Temple, look for Master Kotil Jal. He’s a Besalisk, he shouldn’t be too difficult to find. Explain your situation to him, he’ll help you.”

“Thank you.” She bowed her head. “I need to get some sleep.”

She could see the spaceport on the horizon the next morning, an enormous construction of glass and steel. Landing pads jutted out more or less at random, giving it a lopsided, asymmetrical look.

Of course, the main feature that pulled her eyes was the enormous Sith Star Destroyer hovering over the spaceport. Small ships buzzed back and forth between the two.

“We must be cautious,” Rana said. “They’ll try and stop us from leaving.” She paused for a moment, staring out at the spaceport. “Millia. About my behaviour last night. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have had a go at you like that.”

“It’s alright,” Millia said quickly, before she could continue. “You were stressed out and wound up. It happens to the best of us. It happened to me when I woke up after the crash. Let’s discuss how we’re going to get out of here. We can’t just walk in there and hire a ship, can we?” Rana shook her head. “Steal one, maybe? Sneak on board one as stowaways?”

“That won’t be necessary,” Gesrar said. She jumped slightly. She hadn’t heard him coming. “I have a ship. I can get you back to Coruscant.”

“What kind of ship?” Rana frowned.

“It’s a modified TIE Defender. You know, from Sidious’s Empire, way back when. I upgraded pretty much everything and added a few custom modifications –”

“What kind of hyperdrive does it have?” Rana interrupted.

“P-class, with a few of my own special modifications,” he said. “And it has a class-12 gravitic stabilizer, so it can jump to hyperspace inside a gravity well. Short of them bringing in a dreadnought, it’s completely immune to hyperspace interdiction, so there’s no way they can stop us from leaving.”

“Shields?”

“Custom build. It’s better than most military shields.”

“Can it actually fit three people inside it?” Millia asked. “From what I remember, the Defender was a one-man craft.”

“It can fit four people if you don’t mind squeezing up a little,” he replied. “I beefed up the life support, so it can –”

“OK, we get it,” Rana interrupted. “You pimped up your TIE fighter. Can it get us out of here?”

“Without a doubt.” He grimaced. “I’m going to have to sell my boat. Right, you two go and pack up everything you want to take with you. I need to think how we’re actually going to get through the spaceport.” He pulled out a communicator. “Hey, Dave! Yeah, I need you to get her fuelled up. No, off the record…”

It took another couple of hours for them to approach the spaceport. Millia stood at the bow, staring nervously. Gesrar stood beside her, wearing a longcoat that he’d gotten from somewhere.

“This is going to be tricky,” he said. “How good are you at hiding that you’re Force-sensitive?”

“I’ve never tried it before,” she admitted. He swore softly. “If I stick with you, can you hide me and you?”

He nodded slowly. “I think so. So long as you don’t panic and freak out.”

“What’s the plan?” Rana asked, walking up behind them.

“We hide that we’re Force-sensitive and go in through the front door,” Gesrar said. “They shouldn’t stop us, they don’t know what we look like. I think.”

“You think? Great.” She sighed. “We should go in two groups. You two go in first. I’ll follow.”

Millia frowned. “Um… why?”

“You two have an excuse to be together, you can say that you’re friends or on a honeymoon or something if they question you. What are you going to say if I’m with you, that you decided to bring your mum along?”

They fell silent as they pulled into the spaceport. This was it.

Millia could feel her heart beating faster and faster as they walked through the spaceport. People flowed around them, chatting, without a care in the world. She couldn’t do it. She was going to panic. She was going to –

A bored man at the customs desk waved them through without a second thought. Gesrar squeezed her hand gently. She relaxed a little. They were going to make it. They hadn’t done anything to draw attention to themselves.

His grip tightened suddenly. She saw them. A Sith Lord, standing at the corner ahead, watching the crowd. A bubble of space surrounded them. Nobody wanted to get too close. Her heart started trying to beat out of her chest again.

“Hey!” somebody yelled. “Hey, that’s him, it’s Gesrar Redorn!”

Everything happened at once. The Sith strode towards them, reaching for something under their cloak. Gesrar had a blaster out and fired at them repeatedly as they ran past, half-dragging Millia by her wrist, forcing the Sith to stop and focus on deflecting the shots. People screamed and tried to run. Two more Sith came at them from the other direction. She pushed at them with her free hand and they leaned sideways and one of them gave a contemptuous flick of the wrist and slammed her against the wall.

He barely moved. He didn’t raise his hands like the Jedi did, he didn’t even flick his wrist. She wouldn’t have known it was him if he hadn’t clenched his fist. A spherical wave of force erupted from Gesrar, tossing people head over heels, picking up the three Sith Lords and throwing them straight through the walls. She dropped back to the ground.

“This way!” he called. Rana burst through customs behind them. Alarms went off as they charged through the spaceport. More Sith began chasing them. Bolts of lightning buzzed around them.

“Go,” Rana said, stopping and drawing her lightsaber. “Get to Coruscant. I’ll hold them off.”

“No! You can’t –”

“I am still your mistress, girl!” Rana thundered. “Now go!”

“Come on!” Gesrar hissed. He pulled her through the spaceport to the hangar where his ship was waiting. Three wings spread out from the central core. The outsides of them were covered in solar panels, but the insides had been painted with intricate geometric patterns. Thick blue lines ran around the edge of each wing. Gesrar opened a hatch and pushed her inside before climbing in after her.

“Is there any point in us going back to help Rana?” he asked, flicking switches and pressing buttons. The cockpit came alive around them. Millia shook her head. “Damn. Damn!”

Several Sith and a squadron of battledroids burst into the hangar. He opened fire. Laser bolts carved through their ranks, decimating them. The Sith dived for cover. He kept firing angrily as more of them tried to get close.

“Shouldn’t we be getting out of here?” Millia asked. He growled, but he broke off his attack and hit the button.

Everything bent around them and they leapt into hyperspace.

“Millia…” he said eventually. “I’m sorry.”

She shook her head. “It’s not your fault. How long until we get to Coruscant?”

“About a day. Look, we might have some problems if I try and land there…”

“Because of the bounty on your head?” He nodded. “I’ll sort it out when we get there.”

He smiled gratefully. “Thank you.”

They spent most of the journey in silence. Millia stared out the window, watching the hypnotic flickering of hyperspace, until it finally lulled her to sleep.


End file.
